So I started to go full Primal about two weeks ago. The first week was fine... managed not hunger issues lots of energy... This week I am about to die. I am so starving... I know that I am not really hungry cause i feel hungry even after I just ate a ton of food. I read through all the old post and found that its really common for females to be hungry on Primal and what I am experiencing is somewhat of a carb withdrawal but still I am hungry. I am also confused on the calories thing. Reading through all of those posts I figured out that a calorie counts.... so I use MyfitnessPal to track what I eat and my calories... but his week I am definitely ashamed. I went as far as to make a heavy cream and protein shake this morning...it actually satisfied me...but dang it had some calories in it..
So to give you my stats.. I am 33 year old female. I am 5'3" and 245. HEAVY! Pretty sure that I am close to dying in my sleep. So I need to get this right. I need to do this. I would love some guidance on how many calories some one like me should be trying to eat...I am going to try to get more calories from fat next week see if that will help. MFP says I should aim for roughly 1500 cals to lose a pound a week...
Natalie

08-17-2012, 09:37 PM

impala454

Glad you made the leap! What's a typical day's food for you?

08-17-2012, 09:50 PM

Credodisi

My advice would be to just allow yourself to adjust to primal way of eating before you worry about the calories. Eat primal foods foods, move slowly frequently ( I try to walk 5 miles a day ) and focus on your sleep. You may find you shed pounds just doing that initially. Once you are past low carb flu, you feel good, etc, then if your weight loss isn't what you want it to be, then consider eliminating certain foods ( alcohol, dairy, nuts) or just keeping overall calories down.

08-17-2012, 09:50 PM

Hedonist2

I agree that we need to know what you are eating. You should not be feeling that you are starving. Don't be ashamed of eating what satisfies you!

08-17-2012, 09:50 PM

RaeVynn

Fat is your friend.

Healthy fats and quality protein will help your body feel fed. When it feels fed, it won't crave as badly. I use a lot of grass-fed butter, coconut oil, and good bacon. I also get 75% ground beef (grass-fed). I eat coconut chips (fat shreds - unsweetened) as "filler" food, for when I have the munchies.

Yes, once in awhile I just really want to have something "off-road"... like tacos... but if I keep that to one meal, every couple of weeks or so, I think I'm doing okay.

After reading through the posts... I think I need more fat to help get rid of this hunger and then add more veggies...

08-17-2012, 10:49 PM

impala454

I'd maybe watch it downing an entire cup of heavy cream. It's good stuff but you're talking 800+ calories and 80+ fat in one cup. Other than that, your diet looks pretty good!

Let me ask this, before you went primal, what would you estimate your daily intake was? I know that way back when I started, mine was off the charts, and it took a while for me to adjust. In my days of being 350 lbs I retroactively figured out I was eating around 6,000 calories per day and probably in the neighborhood of 500-600 carbs. So it might be best to slowly wean yourself down. I can vouch that I was definitely hungry early on, but after about a week of the hunger pangs it did gradually go away and less food would fill me up. Your stomach will gradually shrink as you put less food into it. The best thing is to try to keep yourself busy so you're not eating out of boredom (I know I did :)).

p.s. the fruit cocktail, are you making sure that's not some canned stuff in sugar syrup?

08-17-2012, 10:58 PM

obsessed

As to my diet before Primal... I had about a month of just low calorie MFP watching what I ate... it had be at about 1500... I could do that for a bit... but would lose it and binge to 2500... a lot of days I would hit 1800-2200... and that was watching what i ate....I usually would be able to do the restricted calorie for a bit then get depress and quit and then go back...horrible horrible cycle

i will say that I probably will not down the cream like I did today but I was definitely not starving like the last couple of days... I guess I gotta figure out how to add more fat to satiate me. Tomorrow I am gonna try the bullet proof coffee to see if that gets me

Oh the fruit cockail... is a mexican style shrimp seafood cocktail.... cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, avacado, and seafood... the only bad thing it has in it was the ketchup which i found out is quite high in carbs... bummer

08-18-2012, 01:03 AM

nixxy

You have pretty similar stats to me :)

I would agree with the others, for the first while, don't worry too much about calories, just until you get use to it!

Also don't be afraid of meat. I know when I started I wasn't really eating enough meat/protein and that really messed with my hunger. Make your meat serves like at least 3oz! That will keep you fuller longer, and maybe do a 3 egg omelet rather than 2.

One final thing, you seem to have quite a few condiments! I'd get rid of those if I were you because they often contain sugar and lotsa other stuff that really has no nutritional value at all. I'm talking about ketchup, dressing, mayo, mustard, mexican cheese? I have found a dressing for myself that is the most acceptable to me and I just use that now because I KNOW the sugar content and what's in it, but when you eat out you have no idea what's in there!

Good luck doll! I know your hunger will be better soon, as a former big-eating girl I can tell ya that!

08-18-2012, 07:19 AM

sbhikes

You're going to be hungry at first because your body's going to wake up and go hey, real food, gimme more of that! You'll also be hungry because if you ate a lot of grains and sugar before, now you aren't, and your body has no idea how to get its nutrition from grainless, sugarless, lower carb food. So it's going to be in a state of starvation until it figures it out. Relax and be kind to yourself.